The Assembly Member said: “Call-outs to bonfires on the Eleventh Night are not the problem, it is the anti-social elements that are hanging around bonfire sites in the weeks and months leading up to the Twelfth that are causing the trouble.

“Feral youths sit around on old sofas drinking, lighting small fires, setting fire to rival bonfires and generally causing bother into the early hours of the morning.

“This has nothing to do with the Orange culture or tradition, it is simply anti-social behaviour of the worst kind and it is costing us a fortune to deal with it.

“The costs are rising every year and this cannot be allowed to continue. I call on the PSNI to do more to rid communities of this nuisance element which blights many neighbourhoods and puts an unnecessary strain on our emergency services.”